We have been emailed information about a certain event planned to take place at Hillsong Conference 2015.

Print, Promote & Protest

We would like to make it clear:

Mark Driscoll does NOT represent Fundamentalist Christianity but rather that of a cult leader. Although it appeared he began as a “fundamental Christian”, it was fundamental Christianity sounding the alarm of Mark Driscoll’s Emergent/Liberal progression. Not only does he still dabble in their liberal “tribal” notions and obfuscation games, Driscoll is firmly planted in the Purpose-Driven movement and had no problem espousing their vision casting and leadership-centered doctrines.

Mark Driscoll has run from discipline and now associates himself with Prosperityand Word of Faith churches such as Robert Morris’ Gateway Church, Brian Houston’s Hillsong and Joseph Prince’s New Creation Church. In fact, Mark Driscoll is now being discipled by the Word of Faith proponent Robert Morris of Gateway Church.

We ask, is he switching camps to escape responsibility, accountability and discipline for his actions? Should we be surprised that Brian Houston has no problem with the ethical integrity of this man, by asking him to speak at Hillsong? This issue is not Fundamentalism – we are dealing with cult leaders abusing their positions and thus getting away with abusing people.

We hope Christians from all denominations speak out against the cult-like behaviour of Mark Driscoll and its apparent acceptance by Brian Houston.

People Against Fundamentalism are calling for a protest against Sydney’s Hillsong church’s invitation to former mega-church pastor Mark Driscoll, often accused of being a misogynist and a bully, to speak at their Sydney conference this winter. An online petition against Driscoll’s presence at Hillsong’s conference has gathered nearly 1,000 signatures (1)

People Against Fundamentalism have watched Mark Driscoll ongoingly hurt many people, especially women, in Seattle, with his misogyny, bullying, and hardline complementarian teaching.

Last year Mars Hill, the 14,000 member megachurch Driscoll founded and led in Seattle, went down in flames because of his bad behaviour (2). The former church is currently facing a lawsuit for racketeering alleging misuse of funds designated for church planting in Ethiopia and India, including the use of those same funds to pay an agency US$210,000 to game the New York Times bestseller list to get Driscoll’s latest book, Real Marriage, on top (3, 4)

Brian Houston, Hillsong’s senior pastor, is himself potentially under investigation and facing legal repercussions for failing to report his own father and previous Hillsong pastor Frank Houston’s sexual abuse of minors. (5) Jim Henderson, one of the leaders of the protest that brought down Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church last year, and author of the book “Question Mark” about Driscoll and bullying in the church, said “Given Houston’s precarious position with the Royal Commission it seems a risk not worth taking to bring someone else on stage who is similarly under investigation for racketeering charges- What if some of the protesters begin linking the two of them together and accuse Brian of either attempting to divert attention away from his own legal allegations by focusing on Driscoll’s or of processing his own guilt in public using Driscoll as a surrogate”

Rachel Held Evans, a popular Christian blogger and author, says that Driscoll has an “alarming preoccupation with sex and masculinity”, and characterised his most recent book, “Real Marriage” as promoting the idea that “real marriage is to be based on a hierarchical pattern of submission” and as suggesting that it is “sinful” for a wife to withhold sex from her husband. (6)

Paul Tripp, executive director of the Centre for Pastoral Life and Care, and former board member at Mars Hill said of the culture created at by Mark at Mars Hill “This is without a doubt, the most abusive, coercive ministry culture I’ve ever been involved with.” (7)

Throughout his pastoral career at Mars Hill Church in Seattle Driscoll consistently generated controversy by speaking of women and the feminine with near contempt, referring to the church as “chickified”, saying the church needs dudes, saying dudes are and must be the leaders and denigrating “chicks” as being of no consequence. (8) Mark has ongoingly embraced and taught complementarianism, the doctrine that God gave men and women different roles, with men as the leaders and women as the followers. As such, women were precluded from the ranks of leadership at Mars Hill.

In 2011, Driscoll posted this status update to his facebook page “So, what story do you have about the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you’ve ever personally witnessed?” (9)

Mark Driscoll has bragged about his bullying and casting aside of anyone who disagreed with him “There is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it will be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus or get run over by the bus.” (10)

The worldwide church-planting network (over 500 churches) which Mark Driscoll founded, Acts 29, kicked him AND his church Mars Hill out of their network last year, citing “ungodly and disqualifying behaviour”. They asked Mark to step down from ministry for an extended period of time and seek help. (11)

Mark has been accused by many of the pastors/elders of his own church of

Lack of self control

Verbally assaulting people

Slander

Creating a culture of fear

Being verbally abusive

Being arrogant (12)

The board of Elders who investigated these charges found that Mark Driscoll had a pattern of “persistent sin”, and they intended to rebuke him and ask him to enter a restoration process that would eventually lead to his restoration to leadership. The church’s elders were “deeply grieved” when Driscoll surprised them by resigning, thereby circumventing that process. This was followed very quickly by the dissolution of the megachurch he started. (13, 14)

Hillsong–please: don’t give this misogynistic, abusive, ex pastor a platform. Recently, a mere 4 months after the events culminating in his resignation and the dissolution of Mars Hill, Mark Driscoll has relaunched his ministry, still calling himself a “pastor”, and bragging that he’s speaking at Hillsong conference in Sydney this year. We don’t need or want his abusive version of Christianity in Australia.

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This entire situation makes us wonder what Tanya Riches will do about Brian Houston insisting Mark Driscoll speak at Hillsong Conference. We wonder if she would take a similar stand alongside with her liberal sister Rachel Held Evans. They both seem to have a heart for victims.

It appears that some from Hillsong, with its their total rejection of Gods word, in relation to women preachers, are calling Mark Driscoll a misogynist. Which cannot be applied to him if his stance is Biblical.

I want to make it abundantly clear, that i am not here to defend Mark Driscoll. God only knows how much i dislike the seeker sensitive, purpose driven model that Mark Driscoll has embraced. Amongst the most vile is the “blessed subtraction” tactic created to remove anyone who opposes this ungodly movement. Usually with intimidation and bullying.
The members pushed out are usually those that are discerning, wise, conservative, and know their Bible well.
Not hard to guess they are mostly the more mature and spiritual pillars of the church, trying to be true to Gods word while the purpose driven model cares only for material growth.

Remove hymns, crank up the secular music, modernise the building so it no longer resembles a church, watered down bible translations flashed up on screen, not asked to bring a bible or stand up to read from Gods word. Dim the lights, shorten preaching and increase the so called worship with talent shows on stage making a performance.

Anyone not up to this, then “geeze we are going to miss you but maybe you need to find yourself a church where you will be happy”

In other words force bible believing christians to leave their church of many years.

And that is why Hillsong wants Driscoll. Hillsong might get some of that disgraced mega-preacher’s glory reflected back on them if enough people see Houston and Driscoll together. Driscoll has the smoothness with words Houston craves (but will never have); music’s effects are temporary, well-chosen words’ effects are long-term.

In 2015 church applause apparently now is the ultimate goal, the A+ report card. Who cares about what the bible says about requirements for church leaders/ what to do with false teachers…… that’s so 2000 years out-of-date anyway…. #sarc

“the bible will never be out of date, someone has to bring these false teachers down.”
God is bringing these false teachers down with His Word. We simply hold up His Word. And when we do this, Brian Houston squirms like a rattle snake on fire.

Let me be clear about one thing. Mark Driscoll and I stand poles apart on women, their place in society, and their role in the Church.

Hillsong Church has a long history of involving women in every area of church life both on and off the platform, and my own wife Bobbie is my co-Senior Pastor.

I think our leadership styles and relationship with staff and key people have also been vastly different.

So why am I using our platform to interview Mark? We come from different backgrounds, theological positions, and church expressions. I genuinely want to know! Did he really say those things? Does he believe those things? Does he have any regrets? Has he been misrepresented? What has he learned and what can we all learn? And where to from here?

I have met Mark just twice. Before his very public resignation from Mars Hill Church, a mutual friend introduced us over a cup of coffee in Seattle. We talked about life, ministry, and his previous exposure to Australia. The second time, I was standing in line at Starbucks in California bleary eyed and jet lagged when another customer in the line said hi. It was Mark Driscoll and his daughter.

A lot has been said. There’s lessons to be learned. I’m looking forward to asking the questions and hearing from Mark directly. Will we agree afterwards or agree to disagree? Time will tell. I doubt we will agree on everything, but everyone deserves an opportunity to be heard.

Mark will not be speaking at the conference. It’s an open interview with Mark and his wife Grace. Let’s see what he has to say.

Thanks WBM – Let’s take a moment and separate Mark Driscoll from some points made by Brian Houston.

“Let me be clear about one thing. Mark Driscoll and I stand poles apart on women, their place in society, and their role in the Church.”

1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”

Brian Houston “stands poles apart” from the bible. A plain reading of the bible demonstrates that our Lord has called men and women to fulfill the roles and responsibilities specifically designed for them, a pattern we clearly see even in the Trinity.

1 Timothy 2:11-14 “Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”

Brian Houston seems to ignore the FACT that God takes this very seriously by linking these roles back to the very beginning in Genesis, these roles being a result of the Fall. We’re sure Brian would love to separate verses 11-12 from 13-14, again ignoring the fact that this isn’t just a cultural issue.

“So why am I using our platform to interview Mark? We come from different backgrounds, theological positions, and church expressions. I genuinely want to know! Did he really say those things? Does he believe those things? Does he have any regrets? Has he been misrepresented? What has he learned and what can we all learn? And where to from here?”

Well Brian, those interviews have already been done, the people (ex-mars Hill) have spoken, the plagiarism is proven, the church tithe money used to bump up sales on the New York Times best-seller list spent. Brian doesn’t bother reading reports that clearly state the facts, Brian probably takes his cues from best bud, Robert Morris who has already given Mark a platform and provided “covering” http://thewartburgwatch.com/2014/10/24/driscolls-new-tribe-robert-morris-and-the-gateway-gang/

There’s so much more to be said in response to this, so we’ll hand it over to a few more commenters.

Houston: ” …I genuinely want to know! Did he really say those things? Does he believe those things? Does he have any regrets? Has he been misrepresented? What has he learned and what can we all learn? And where to from here?”

Very noticeable omission: “Has he (Driscoll) *repented* (of his many sins, including spiritual abuse)?” Even unsaved people regret, learn from mistakes, experience remorse after all.

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

It would appear that Driscoll “had the guts” to have a coffee with Houston, which is something that I understand is not for the faint-hearted. But that reference to a “mutual friend” is puzzling: I find it very difficult to believe that either Houston or Driscoll have friends in the usual sense – I suspect the truth is that they have acquaintances who can be of use to them in some fashion or other.

“Has [Driscoll] been misrepresented?”

LOL: does Brian want to cast Driscoll as a victim? Brian “I can’t get my story straight” Houston knows all about that, doesn’t he?

“Two of the biggest megachurch pastors in the Seattle area, Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Judah Smith of The City Church, are already getting ready for the major 2013 Resurgence Conference in November. They talked about their good friendship in a recent interview.

Smith, who is still promoting his book, Jesus Is: Find a New Way to Be Human, which he discussed in an interview with The Christian Post in March, was recently interviewed by Driscoll.

The Mars Hill leader, who has been invited to preach at The City Church numerous times, said: “I believe it makes Jesus happy that two of the largest churches in our region are genuinely for one another, love one another, encourage one another, and care for one another.”

“Pastors who give Mark Driscoll a platform are adding to the abuse of those of us who were abusively treated by Mars Hill Church.

Dan Kellogg, from Gold Creek Community Church, said that he had done his homework on Driscoll before he invited him to speak at his church recently. I am not sure what homework he did, but Dan Kellogg contacted none of the abused ex-members or pastors. Driscoll spoke of how he is learning to forgive those who hurt him. He did not speak of the hundreds of families hurt by his abuse.

Robert Morris, who gave Driscoll his first public appearance where Driscoll skillfully made the audience feel sorry for him, said that he knows the “behind the scenes story“, yet failed to speak to any of his accusers or those shunned by Driscoll’s abusive church.

Ray Johnston, of Bayside Church, gave Driscoll a platform where he was able to again repeat the lie that he moved from one house to another because of fear – the second to the last move being simply across the street from his previous home.

Now we see Driscoll about to be hosted by John and Debbie Lindell from James River Church. The church was informed that Mark Driscoll would be preaching this Sunday as if the collapse of the most abusive church in recent history had not occurred.

Brian Houston of Hillsong also is giving Mark Driscoll a platform. He plans to interview both Mark and Grace Driscoll to “learn from their mistakes.” Never mind that Driscoll has yet to confess his sins to hundreds of members that he abused, including Paul Petry and Bent Meyer.

Sadly, these men are simply adding to the abuse that so many Mars Hill members endured. I am sure they mean well. But every time Mark Driscoll is given a platform while he is still non-repentant and not reconciled, these church leaders are acting without any regard to the reality that Mark Driscoll resigned without repentance and left a trail of brokenness in his path. Mark Driscoll boasted that before he was done, he would leave a “mountain” of dead bodies behind his Mars Hill bus. He made good on that boast and has never repented or shown the least bit of contrition or remorse – at least not to those who were ruthlessly dealt with by him.

Most of us ex-members would delight to see true repentance from Mark Driscoll. This would surely begin by joining the vast majority of the elders who have repented of their ruthless treatment of Paul Petry and Bent Meyer in 2007. They have repented from subjecting Paul Petry and his family to an unfair trial and public shunning. That shunning was never lifted, and none of the leaders of the Mars Hill Church-spawned church “plants” have repudiated such horrendous treatment of the beloved former elders.

I implore pastors who are keen to see Mark Driscoll return to the ministry. Until he deals with his abusive past, you are simply propping up an abusive man, and in so doing you add to the abuse.

The Gospel is about reconciliation. It ought to be that only after Mark Driscoll has genuinely reconciled with those that he has abused, that pastors who claim to love the Gospel begin to allow him a voice.

Otherwise those that give him a voice are pretending that there are no bodies under the Mars Hill bus and risk harming already bruised and shattered people.

Once again proving Hillsong and Houston do NOT do their due diligence when it comes to inviting speakers to participate at their conferences. Time and time again they have exposed the conference attendees to false teachers and teaching, so why are we surprised. Houston claims to have not even known about Driscoll’s outrageous statements about women as “sex objects” (no need to be more explicit as to exactly what he called them).

Statement from Pastor Brian Houston, Hillsong Church June 2015

“After personal interaction with Mark Driscoll today, we have agreed that he will no longer be coming to Australia or the UK to attend Hillsong Conference. It is my hope that Mark and I will be able to speak in person in the coming weeks to discuss some of the issues that have been raised, what – if anything – he has learned, and for me to understand better how he is progressing in both his personal and professional life.

The teachings of Christ are based on love and forgiveness, and I will not write off Mark as a person simply because of the things that people have said about him, a small minority of people signing a petition or statements he has made many years ago for which he has since repeatedly apologised.

However, I do not want unnecessary distractions during our conference, particularly as this 30 minute interview was only a small part of this five day event. It was clear to me that Mark’s attendance had the potential to divert attention from the real purpose of Hillsong Conference, which is to see people leave encouraged in their own spiritual journey.

Clearly Mark has held some views and made some statements that cannot be defended. One or two of the more outrageous things he is purported to have said, I have heard for the first time through the media exposure over the past week.”

Yeah, don’t think for a second that Brian has done anything honourable. The only reason his visit was cancelled because it was a “distraction”. I honestly don’t understand why Brian Houston was so eager to hear from a bully that destroyed a church and hurt so many people.

I believe brian was lying through his teeth when he claimed he never knew about things Mark Driscoll has said in the past. No doubt about it most people in ministry know what others are doing especially high profile so called pastors like Mark Driscoll.

It hurts to read all this. It’s so easy to keep judging others. Even though it’s important to state if something wrong was done, you should consider Matthew 7:3 once in a while.

It seems like some of you desperately need to receive the love of God and then start to approach others in love – which does not mean to avoid confrontation or conflict but what you guys do here is actually much more gossip than anything else (just with a “nice Christian glow”).

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